Off on our adventure....Jan 2015

System

Had dentist appointment today.:( Had to find a new one recently as it turned out that ours wasn't as good as I had thought and there are a few things need sorting and when I got an infection recently, the old dentist was rubbish and not very nice at all, considering I have a real dentist phobia which has been made worse since I had the problem with anxiety last year. Anyway, I was recommended the best dentist in the area, who is brilliant with nervous patients, :)but has no NHS spaces so had to go private. Not ideal, but I think health is important and I decided to go for it and just take it one step at a time and only have the treatment I could afford. So went to the see him a few weeks ago and he said he would give me today's appointment for free to boost my confidence back up again and also to drill away the bad bits at the back and see exactly what needed doing to it. So now have a nice treatment plan that is going to cost about £700 in total. I have explained that I won't be having it all done quickly due to finances but I do at least have enough put by for the first extraction and hopefully will get more work from the casual work now to put by for the rest...slow but sure.
So I no longer worry about things like this, it will either all turn out ok, or it won't. Personally I think all will be sorted....positive thinking and all that!:)

Postie must have wondered what was going on today....13 envelopes dropped through the door, all from Ll***s and Hellif*x. Confirming the new DMP amounts and saying all accounts are now on their way to collections dept, which is what we were told in Feb, so don't know why it all takes so long.

BC confirmed today that it will be 7 months to default but that it will then be backdated to the date we started our DMP...so that is even better. :T
So all in all, things are going ok. Not come into a fortune or anything, but nothing bad has happened either.
Hope everybody else is ok

System

Well having not written in my diary for far too long, I decided I should get back into it. ...if anybody is actually remotely interested in reading it. Even if you are not, at least it will be something I can look back on in years to come and realise what a good thing the DMP was.
I am still saving for the emergency fund...not going well as had too many expenses last year. It all comes down to me as any spare money OH gets, he buys stuff for himself that he says he "needs"...new bike boots, new phone case, new fleece....when I say new, they are actually mostly second hand, but I am not 100% sure he really "needs" them.


Well things are still ticking along in DMP land, although would be better if we could pay it off quicker. There are so many things we really could do with purchasing and having to make a list in priority order. The main one being a new mattress. Ours is way passed the recommended 8 years (think we have had it almost 14 years) and is really bad now. Made worse by the fact that I have been diagnosed with Osteoporosis and am finding it doubly uncomfortable. Good mattresses seem to be expensive and not sure it is worth throwing away money on a cheap one that won't last long. So not sure what the answer is, but definitely need one sooner rather than later.
Really need to do some decorating as well and sofa is really in need of replacing, as well as needing a new window & door in lounge and new bedroom carpet and also will be needing a new car in the next couple of years. So as you can see we need a lottery win.....LOL.
Thing is, I believe that our health and bodies are more important than material possessions..(which is why the mattress is top priority), and even though we need all these things and have our DMP to pay, I am still saving for a cheap 4 night break in a caravan in UK, in May.


Well that is my interesting life so far...lol. Still working part time, not sure I could do any more TBH, as I am exhausted most of the time as it is. Feeling a bit rough today actually, hope I am not coming down with something, as we are supposed to be visiting parents tomorrow....150 mile drive, as we had to cancel before Christmas due to everybody being ill.
So will see how the weekend progresses.
Until next time.....x

System

Just adding...(feels like I am waffling today)....I am determined to have a good declutter again this year, did it a couple of years ago, but it has all built up again....thanks to OH...LOL. Soon as I have time I am starting one room at a time and hopefully finding a few things to car boot or sell on FB etc. Also starting a lot more survey/receipt upload sites etc to try and save more money.
Onwards and upwards!

System

Well weekend was good, we actually went out for a rare treat. Really wanted to go to cinema and see Darkest Hour so as I had had an extra day overtime this week, we treated ourselves....well I do get cheaper ticket now I am 60...lol. Then I found a 2for1 voucher for Bella Italia so we went for a late breakfast first.
Now onwards and upwards with debt busting. Have contacted SC to to let them know we are going SM from Feb. Letters all sent to creditors enclosing a financial statement from the NEDCAB site. Just about to cancel the SC SO & awaiting the details of setting up new ones for each creditor, although some of them have already put their details on back of the original letters they sent us when they took over the debts.
Am now saving a lot harder for different things by saving £2 & 20p's...its surprising how quickly it adds up. Also trying to get emergency fund back up again and also set a separate account to skim extra money from main account daily and put towards treats/cheap holiday etc.
I have set up another account to put money into each month to save for F&F's, now that we are going SM. So all in all I am feeling very positive about things now & although our original DFD was many years away, the plan is now to get it paid a lot sooner by saving and trying to get some deals with creditors. Robinson's already offered us a 50% deal but we were not in a position to have the funds to accept....so hopefully next time we will.

The only blot on the landscape at the moment is that I broke a tooth....well more like the whole tooth came away & have to go to dentist on Weds. I have enough money if he decides to take out the little bit that's left.....although I am petrified of dentists and don't really want him to do that. But if he says he can crown it, which would be better really as I have so many gaps already, then that will cost a lot more so might be a bit of a challenge there!
Anyway, enough waffle for today. Thanks for reading.

Suseka97

Have popped over from the DMP thread just to say hi and good luck with going self-managed. Good idea to get a fund going for F&Fs down the line and every little helps. I feel your pain, re the dentist, I also have a bit of a dentist phobia having had some 'not so nice' experiences with dentists in the past. I've got to make an appointment with a private dentist because I need some work doing that isn't covered by the NHS (which I find somewhat annoying) and have been putting it off because of the likely cost.
Anyways - hope it all works out for you

System

Suseka97 wrote: »

Have popped over from the DMP thread just to say hi and good luck with going self-managed. Good idea to get a fund going for F&Fs down the line and every little helps. I feel your pain, re the dentist, I also have a bit of a dentist phobia having had some 'not so nice' experiences with dentists in the past. I've got to make an appointment with a private dentist because I need some work doing that isn't covered by the NHS (which I find somewhat annoying) and have been putting it off because of the likely cost.
Anyways - hope it all works out for you

Hi and welcome to my diary and thanks for the good wishes.

Looking at your debts in your signature, you have done really well in just a few years. Can I ask....did you make offers and were they accepted?

I'm glad I'm not the only one with dental phobia. I found this dentist last year on recommendations and originally had a tooth out privately as he had no NHS spaces at the time. Then later in the year we transferred to his NHS list. I thought he had sorted me out and now this other tooth has broken off. Its really broken a lot so not sure what his options will be.

Daydreambeliever

Hello Ploppy57, I am a long time lurker on this forum and post occasionally. I just wanted to say hello and I followed your diary back when you started with January2015 and I followed both of your diaries. Glad you are carrying on, I think it is a wonderful way to track your journey. I had been on a DMP with Stepchange for what seemed forever and unfortunately, as I was so constrained with my budget for fear of getting everything paid off, got into a mess of borrowing again with payday loans and Very catalogue. Anyway, back in January 2015, I knew I had to sort myself out and found this site and have never looked back. I followed you and January and along with Puzzcat got some backbone and contacted SC to add in these debts. Last year, I actually went self managed. So happy you are going SM, you won't regret it. I have recently had to drop to token payments again as my poor furbaby is not well and have vet fees. I also have a c/c account from mid 90's I never got around to CCAing so I am hoping to get courage to do that asap. My OH knows nothing of my debt, and only my sister and very best friend know. Even now, I feel so ashamed of my debt but I love this site because it is somewhere I can read up, get help, and not be so hard on myself knowing I am not alone in this. Anyway, keep on going and welcome to the Self Manage Club Have a lovely day and look forward to following your journey and good luck with dentist. Like you, I get very anxious about going. DB xx

System

Daydreambeliever wrote: »

Hello Ploppy57, I am a long time lurker on this forum and post occasionally. I just wanted to say hello and I followed your diary back when you started with January2015 and I followed both of your diaries. Glad you are carrying on, I think it is a wonderful way to track your journey. I had been on a DMP with Stepchange for what seemed forever and unfortunately, as I was so constrained with my budget for fear of getting everything paid off, got into a mess of borrowing again with payday loans and Very catalogue. Anyway, back in January 2015, I knew I had to sort myself out and found this site and have never looked back. I followed you and January and along with Puzzcat got some backbone and contacted SC to add in these debts. Last year, I actually went self managed. So happy you are going SM, you won't regret it. I have recently had to drop to token payments again as my poor furbaby is not well and have vet fees. I also have a c/c account from mid 90's I never got around to CCAing so I am hoping to get courage to do that asap. My OH knows nothing of my debt, and only my sister and very best friend know. Even now, I feel so ashamed of my debt but I love this site because it is somewhere I can read up, get help, and not be so hard on myself knowing I am not alone in this. Anyway, keep on going and welcome to the Self Manage Club Have a lovely day and look forward to following your journey and good luck with dentist. Like you, I get very anxious about going. DB xx

Hi and welcome to my diary. I am sure we are doing the right thing going SM. Determined to get things paid off even quicker now.
Dentist was ok....as in he didn't do anything today, other than xrays. But I do have to go back to have a root taken out from a tooth that broke a couple of years ago....:( Then there is a back one that has had a temporary filling in for almost a year now as I can't pluck up the courage to go and have it out as it is a back one and frightens me to death thinking about it. The one that broke the other day, he says is ok at the moment if he just smooths it down, unless I really want him to take the rest of it out......er....no.... So I now just have to pluck up the courage and make the appointment for the first one and see where we go from there....he knows how scared I am but he thinks if I have the easy one done first I will be ok....lol...:rotfl:..that doesn't compute properly in my brain....the one I had out last year was bad enough.....

System

Well today has been a day of 2 halves....good and bad. Went to dentist which was bad:( ...he didn't do anything, which was good...:j. Got to go back and have root out x 1 and tooth out x 1..:( ....really terrified of that.

On a good note, first of the letters popped through the door in reply to all my new SM letters I have sent out. PRA are happy to accept our new reduced payments on all 3 of the old MBNA accounts. The total outstanding on these 3 is only about £1800, which is quite a small chunk of our total debt, but one I would like to get rid of ASAP. So hoping with it being such a small amount, we might be able to save for some F&F's quite soon. I have also written CCA letters to them, so we will see what response we get back from them about that. If they don't comply, I will stop payments and see if I can force them to settle for a smaller amount.

I have written to NewDay today, via the online account thingy, regarding my old Debenhams card. That has a balance of £261. I have been paying £5 with Stepchange but now that we are going SM, that would drop considerably. I have pointed out that as it would take many years to repay the debt, I hoped they would accept a reduced figure and offered them £130, which I said I could pay next week. So I will keep you all updated on my progress.

So that's it for today, lets see what the future holds....

jwil

You are doing really well. Good luck with the F&F for the Debenhams card!